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DATE=09/29/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=YEMEN / IRAQ (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-267247

BYLINE=DALE GAVLAK

DATELINE=CAIRO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A Yemeni plane carrying 64 passengers, including two government ministers and humanitarian supplies, flew to Baghdad today/Friday in the latest test of United Nations sanctions. Dale Gavlak reports from Cairo that Iraq is urging Arab states to organize more flights to Baghdad.

TEXT: The Yemeni plane secured authorization from Saudi Arabia for the flight after Saudi officials earlier refused to allow the plane to fly over its territory forcing the craft to turn back to Sanaa.

According to a Saudi airport official, the kingdom issued a permit only after Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh telephoned Saudi Defense and Aviation Minister Prince Sultan.

Saudi Arabia had initially refused permission for the plane to fly over its airspace, saying it lacked United Nations authorization. But Yemen said it received permission from the U-N Security Council's sanctions committee to travel to Iraq to carry humanitarian aid.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdul-Qader Bagammal is heading the delegation of lawmakers, doctors, lawyers and journalists on a mission that he says is to express Yemen's concern for the Iraqis suffering under sanctions. Yemen sided with Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf War when an international coalition led by the United States drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.

/// OPT /// The flight is part of Yemen's national carrier, "Yemenia." It flew via Jordan in order to avoid crossing the "no-fly" zone over southern Iraq patrolled by the U-S and Britain. /// END OPT ///

Yemen follows Jordan's lead this week in flying to Baghdad -- the first Arab country to do so in a decade. Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told reporters that Jordan's flight on Wednesday showed that it is the beginning of the end of the sanctions. Iraq has been under international sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Mr. Aziz said that the Jordanian initiative echoes the feelings of not only Arabs but of millions around the world who believe -- as he put it -- that "enough is enough."

U-S Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has said that Washington is "very concerned" about continuing flights to Iraq. The United States and Britain say sanctions could only be lifted after Iraq proves it no longer has weapons of mass destruction or the means to produce them. (Signed)

NEB/DG/GE/JP